Blessed...

As my 30th year of life begins, I've started thinking about how blessed those years have been.  There aren't enough words to express how thankful I am for all the people, events, and circumstances involved in getting me to my 29th birthday.  However, I'm hoping this blog will be a start.

My goal is to publish one thing I'm thankful for each day until my 30th birthday one year from today.  Perhaps it'll continue after that; we'll see how committed I am to the cause! ;-)  There may be some repeats, but I'm sure anyone or thing mentioned more than once surely deserves it!  Some days it might be something small, others may be HUGE...  No matter the blessing, it deserves some praise!

So today I'll start with my darling husband.  We recently celebrated our 1-year anniversary, and oh, what a year it's been! Our marriage started with only one income, as Noah had left his job.  We weren't able to take the European honeymoon we'd been planning with my measly teacher's salary, so we made the best of it in Maui.  After returning, the serious job hunt began, and he landed a dream job in our dream city!  We'd talked about moving to Portland for years, and the opportunity fell into our laps in September.  I left my old job behind and packed up the pooch for our next adventure!

Shortly after moving, I found out that I wasn't actually allowed to move out of my condo.  Evidently one of the stipulations of my CalHFA loan was that my condo had to be my primary residence for the life of the loan...  Oops!  I was granted a one-year "hardship" but now I'm stuck either refinancing for less than I still owe, selling for less than I still owe, or moving back.  Hmmm...  Still not quite sure about this one, but I have until January 31st to figure it out.  Anyone wanna buy a condo? ;-)

I started the process of transferring my CA credential over to OR only to find some good news and some bad news.  The good news is, I don't have to take any classes or tests to get it transferred.  Yay!  However, the bad news is, it's going to cost me almost $400 in fees to get the new stupid piece of paper!  And to take that news from bad to worse, the state of education in OR is even worse off than CA!  Teachers are being laid off left and right, schools are closing all around us, and the possibility of getting a job in the near future is slim to none!  So why am I shelling out $400?

And then the kidney stone...  Noah woke up with some back pain one morning, but by the time he got to see a doctor it was gone.  Two days later, it hurt badly enough for him to leave work (and if you know my husband, you know how much of a workaholic he is!) and come home to lay on the floor for 8 hours.  After not being able to keep his dinner down, we went to the ER where they took a CAT scan to show him his stone.  He was sent home to wait it out with Vicodin in hand, and 4 days later, our little 2mm bundle of joy entered the world (in Japan, no less!).  Now we're learning what foods he should avoid to prolong the inevitable return of kidney stone #2...

Which brings us to today...  There were, of course, many other events along the way, but we'll stop there for now.  At this point you may be thinking to yourself, "I thought she was thankful; this is seeming rather bitter and sad..."  You would be correct.  However, the thing I'm thankful for is the support of Darling Husband through it all.  We've overcome a lot together and always find ourselves stronger on the other side.  He's open and honest, gives me a shoulder to cry on, encourages me on the days when I'm not so hopeful, and lets me yell it out when I can't see beyond the frustration.  We lean on each other equally and have learned to take things as they come, one day at a time.  Thank you, Noah, for being my husband!